There are a wide variety of environments in which documents are authored. The process of authoring a document often involves performing research on the particular topic that the document is to address. That research is then referenced in the process of creating the final document.
There are many different ways to perform research in order to author a document. Currently, the process often takes the following form, in general. The author first does some initial research into the topic of interest. The author often finds interesting data during the initial research process. That research is then printed off or electronically placed into a collaborative note taking application, or it can also be saved as a book mark in a browser, pasted into another document, saved alongside the final work product, or otherwise. Often, the author then begins to start writing the document.
In doing so, the author often attempts to keep all of the research available to him or her, so that the author remembers what information has been collected. That is, the author must attempt to remember which pieces of research (or research items) should be referenced or incorporated at corresponding locations in the document being authored. The author then reviews all the research to ensure that it was incorporated into the document and, if not, attempts to determine whether it is worth rewriting sections of the document to include the omitted research.
In general, this process is tedious, time consuming and error prone. The authors often find it difficult to manage the research themselves, entirely separately from the context of the final work product (or document) for which that research was collected.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.